1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to the technical field of installing a file system in a portable data carrier such as, for example, a smart card or a chip module.
2. Description of the Related Art
Before a data carrier can be ready for use, a file system has to be installed in it. This is typically done at the occasion of the initialization of the data carrier, i.e., at the occasion of the loading of data and/or programs that are identical for a largish number of data carriers. With this loading of data there are also determined either wholly or partly the structures and attributes (file tree, reading rights, etc.) of the file system. The file system may also be installed at the occasion of other manufacturing steps, for example at the occasion of the personalization, i.e. the loading of data that are individual for the data carrier and/or its subsequent user.
ISO 7816 is an industrial standard that describes how a file system in accordance with the standard can be installed in smart cards. In particular, ISO 7816 describes the CREATE FILE command, with which the individual files of the file system and the associated file attributes can be successively installed. The parameters of the CREATE FILE command are so designed that bit sequences from the data transmitted to the smart card are written into a memory of the smart card directly, i.e. without further transformation.
The precise format of the data transferred to the smart card for file system initialization is proprietary in most cases and may depend on the particular operating system of the card. This is particularly the case if the card comprises modifications or further developments as compared with the aforementioned standard, but also in other cases, because the standard admits a certain space for interpretation. Furthermore, ever increasing use is made of smart cards of which the file system cannot be initialized in accordance with ISO 7816 or with which this is at least not customary, a case in point being the Java Card™.
Given the strong machine orientation of the customary formats, special utility programs are needed for producing and processing the initialization data and these must likewise be matched to the particular smart card used in each case and its operating system. Such an utility program, specially designed for the STARCOS® smart card operating system of the applicant, is at present being marketed under the name STARMAG®. Here there also exists the problem that, on the one hand, the STARMAG® program cannot be used, or can be used only to a limited extent, for smart cards with other operating systems and that, on the other hand, possibly useful functions of other programs are not available for STARCOS® smart cards.
The hitherto mentioned problems do not exist only with a view to the format of the data that are to be transferred onto the smart card, but also with a view to the data format in which the necessary pieces of information about the file system that is to be installed are transmitted to an initialization and/or personalization device for smart cards. Here, once again, use is made of proprietary formats that also depend on the smart cards to be processed in each case and therefore call for special utility programs.